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Friday, May 10, 2013

Winter of 1933-34

Nobody can argue there wasn't a winter, and it's certainly notable. It was by far the coldest winter in the north east United States, since records have been kept. It was notable in New England and New York for the devastating effects on the apples. sourcesourcesourcesource

3 comments:

The winter of 1933/34 was in many ways extremely memorable, mostly for the mild weather in the western United States. For the first time ever, Flagstaff, Arizona did not fall to 0˚F once – after a stlll-record thirty nights under zero Fahrenheit in 1932/33 – and Moscow, Idaho received an all-time monthly record 11.98 inches of precipitation in December, but four-fifths of that was rain, whilst in western Oregon and Washington, November was the coolest month from July 1933 to June 1934!

In Idaho the mild winter led to large pest outbreaks in grain and sugar beet crops the following spring, as well as causing the worst losses for winter sports operators until 1976/77.

Although I was aware that the record warmth in the Northwest was counterbalanced by record cold in Alaska and eastern Canada, I was unaware of large-scale damage to apples in New England – it seems like a footnote compared to the Western warmth and ongoing drought in the Plains states.